Dual Wielding 101: Dual Wielding for Dummies, a Comprehensive Guide

Hello, It's a-me, Cypher. Again.

I'm here to discuss about Dual Wield(Again, coz it got updated). But we will be discussing everything from basics to advanced and will be discussing some tips and tricks that you can learn and practice to get the most out of your DW.
Dual Wield before the Revamp was nothing but called as a "Fun Class", because most said being a DW was just for fun and did not contribute anything to PTs, only played if you wanna play around bosses.
After the Revamp, Every DW Skill damage was boosted by 30%. What you were hitting with Smite before the revamp, would be what you are hitting on a normal skill after the revamp. Which is a big deal and slowly put the DW back on radar.
Although, players still find difficulty in making an effective DW Build. Most people building DW, have two concerns: Stats, and Skills. Then pops up two more concerns, Combos, and Equips.

In this thread, will be Discussing:

• What Makes Dual Sword Unique?
• Stats
• Skills
• Equipment
  • Weapon
  • Armor
  • Additional Gear
  • Rings
  • Crystals
• Combos
  • Basic
  • Advanced
  • Building Your Own Combo

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What makes the Dual Sword, Unique:

• Unique Attack Animation
  • The DS' Attack is considered to be called as a Normal Attack Set, rather than a Normal Attack. This is because the DS hits multiple times in every attack rather than once or twice like when equipped with Bow or Knuckles or Magic Devices.

• The Dual Sword has a unique attack animation, including their First Attack and Evasion Attack.

• The Evasion Attack is similar to the First Attack, It procs when you Evade an attack and do an Evasion Attack.

• Also this can be cancelled unlike other weapons' auto attacks. With just the right timing and set up, you can cancel multiple auto attack animations to quickly prorate and regen MP through AMPR.

​

• Increased AMPR(Attack MP Recovery)
  • Compared to other Weapons. The When Equipped with Dual Swords, You also gain increased AMPR. My theory on this is because of the Unique Attack animation. As a way to compensate for the long auto attack animation, they made it so that you get the most out of it, by doubling AMPR.

• Skill Tree that exploits(?)/relies/enhances the Evasion
  • The Skill, Reflex enhances your Evasion Rate, at the cost of DEF and MDEF, this is to say that DS really relies more on counter attacking and dodging rather than getting hit.

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Stats

So let's start of with Stats, when you Equip an OHS, It specifies that STR increases Damage and Attack Speed, and DEX Increases Damage. This suggests that your main stat is DEX and/or STR unlike 2h that has a main stat of STR.

Conceptually speaking...
As a DW, you'd focus more on hitting than just attacking rampantly without regard if you're hitting or not, so DEX is appointed as a main Stat
Next is AGI, Based on other Dual Wield classes on other games, classes that dual wield daggers, swords and other short but fast weapons are swift and rely mostly on speed to survive and play out the fights.
Finally, STR. STR is a stat associated with damage, it increases your CDMG in the game and is mostly used for DPS. Now we don't rely too much on speed if we can't hit 'em hard. So adding STR to increase damage is a huge thing.

Stats will make or break the DW you build.

Now enough of the Concepts... Here is the breakdown.
DEX

• Increases ATK by 2, gradually increases ATK by 1 point after 4 to 5 points in DEX
• Increases Hit/Accuracy
• Increases your Main Weapon Damage only.
• Increases Crit Rate(?) (clarify me on this)

​

AGI

• Increases ATK by 1, gradually increases ATK by 1 point after 4 to 5 points in AGI
• Increases Flee
• Increases ASPD
• Increases your Sub Weapon Damage

​

STR

• Increases ATK by 1, gradually increases ATK by 1 point after 4 to 5 points in STR
• Increases ASPD
• Increases CDMG by 1 for every 5 points
• Increases both Main and Sub weapon damage by half of what you would gain when you put 1 point in either DEX or AGI

​

Popular Stat Allocations are:
Full DEX, Rest STR, Part AGI/CRT
This is a stat build for the commonly sought after Single stat to Dual stat allocation that most players go after because most players are used to maxing out one stat to get the most out of it then filling in other stats based on what they need. Some going STR for more damage, Then allocating some points to AGI so the sub weap damage increases, or to CRT so they can crit more.

Full STR, Part CRT, Rest DEX/AGI
A stat allocation similar to 1h fu and Halberd, It focuses solely on damage and a spamming, minimal auto attacking while looking for a good opportunity to continue spamming.

Common Stat Allocations:
1:1 DEX and AGI/STR.
You put points both in DEX and either AGI or STR. Then some of the rest to either stats and some other stats like VIT or CRT.
Reason Being, DEX and AGI raises a lot of damage to your main and sub weapon, increasing damage on your auto attacks and to skills like Twin Slash, Spinning Slash, and Charging Slash.
While going STR increases CDMG and part main and sub weapon damage. This is mostly done by players who have a head start on equips that raise CDMG and Crit Rate.

Uncommonly used Stat Allocation:
Part DEX, Part STR, Part AGI
This is for players who have a grasp on how to stat a DW in terms of core. Similar to how I build my stats. Which is 150:100:100. It doesn't look good to players who don't know why this is, but it is an effective stat build, although it doesn't provide the highest damage you can get, it's enough to keep up with other players.
​

Skills

Level 1

• Dual Sword Mastery (Passive)

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This passive lets you equip a sword on the Sub Hand. Equipping a Sword on a sub hand decreases your accuracy and crit rate. But maxing this skill passive, negates the drop in Accuracy and Crit Rate.

• Dual Sword Control (Passive

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This passive gives you +50 Aspd per level, and also reduces some of the reductions on accuracy, and critical rate, the same with Dual Sword Mastery. Maxing this along with Dual Sword Mastery increases your Crit rate and Accuracy by 10%

• Twin Slash (200 MP)

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Possibly one of the strongest early damage skills you can get along with Astute if you decide to take Astute from the Blade Skill Tree for the Crit boost since this Twin Slash has increased Crit Damage innately. A 2mp

• Cross Parry (100 MP)

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This is a good skill in my opinion. It lets you charge up to attack the enemy twice, with a chance to tumble the target, reduces the next physical damage hit you receive by 90% and after blocking or parrying successfully, your ATK and ASPD is increased by 1% per level, so a total of 10% at Max

• Reflex (100 MP)

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A Buff skill that Gives you increased evasion for 100 seconds. But decreases your DEF and MDEF by 90% at level 10. Increases Evasion Rate by 50% for the duration.

Level 2

• Spinning Slash (100 MP)

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Your Main/Only AoE Skill on the skill tree. Slashes quickly to hit enemies around you and knocking them back, then generating a whirlwind that causes damage over time in that area. The DPS in the AoE is good. It can hit hard at the initial attack, and also hits hard at the per tick damage in the whirlwind. This is one of my favorite skills to use when I'm soloing bosses.

• Charging Slash (300 MP)

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Charges up, and dashing through the target and deals damage in a line. This skill hits really hard. Damage can be comparable to Phantom Slash some times. Considered as Unsheathe Attack, so the damage is increased by Flash Blast Buff, and other Unsheathe increasing equips.

• Godspeed (Passive)

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Increases Agi, +14 at lvl 10, Also gives you the unique evasion and first attack, increases their damage, along with some skills on the Dual Sword tree.

Level 3

• Phantom Slash (400 MP)

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Becomes Invulnerable for few seconds while dealing massive damage to a single target. Inflicts Freeze on the target. Executes targets that are lower level than you by a high margin. High damage skill that hits for 12 times

• Shadow Step (400 MP at Lvl 1-3/ 300 MP at Lvl 4 to 7/ 200 MP at Lvl 8 to 10)

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Starts at 2m range at lvl 1, increases by 1 per level to 12m range at Max. Quickly moves behind the target and increases the next skills Crit Rate while also applying an AMPR buff similar to Trigger Slash which is 10% increased Base AMPR per level, so it doubles your AMPR at lvl 10. Great for quickly chasing targets, and avoiding AOE Redzones.

• Flash Blast (200 MP)

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Buff that lasts for 110 seconds. Produces a blast that deals damage around your character, scales off ATK and CDMG like a normal activatable skill, activated only when you do Evasion. So it partners well with Reflex, Light Armor, and Light Armor Mastery and Increased Evasion.
​

 

Equipment

Weapons

For Main Weapon
Always get ATK%.
Variations you can get are:
1. ATK%, CD%, Flat CD.
2. ATK%, CD, CR, CR%
3. ATK%, CD%, Flat CD, CR. (Varies between ATK 4%/CDMG 7% or ATK 7%/CDMG 4%)

The first two are available right away in this stage of the game.
The last one is a gamble but will be available by the time we can get 50+ Pot on a 1h, which is worth getting.​

Sub Weapon

Stats that work on sub are WEAP ATK, Stability, Element.
Refine affects Weapon ATK Value so get it to as high as you can.
Based on what I read, a +S can get you x2.25 of the Weap Atk it has.

For Custom 1h stats.
Getting ATK%, Crit, CDMG is useless on sub because it will not work.
I personally use a 105~106 +B Ice Brand with Elem and Trash stats, by trash stats I mean random negas, even getting negative STR%, DEX% or nega Max HP/MP won't work.

But if you want to use it for Main weap.
Get it stats like
Element, %DMG to Opposite Element, Atk%/CDMG/CDMG%/Crit or any other variation you want.
For a standard sub weapon, without elem.
Get. TOMAHAWK. 120 Base Weap ATK. Outweighs the 40% Stability it has.
(Edit) as of v3.1.14a marks the state of the game where a sword with a higher atk stat than Tomahawk is released. So any sword with a higher atk than Tomahawk is better. Except you can still use Tomahawk if you want a neutral elem 1h for sub.
In future updates , Tomahawk will be obsolete as new 1h are released that are neutral element.
(Edit) Get Element + Stability. 3% Makes a difference in stability, plus it affects both your Main and Sub weapon​

Armor

Always go Light Armor Remod. For Evasion.

Stats you can get are:
1. Crit Crit% CDMG CDMG%
2. ATK% Crit CDMG
3. Stat% Crit Crit% CDMG
4. ATK% Stat% Crit.

I advise getting the 1st option.
You get more ATK from the stats you put and the weapon you get anyway.
So it's better to prioritize on Crits for your armor since ATK% eats double the pot it needs on weap, which is a waste of stats you can get.​

Add Gears:

Simple Enough, you choose between: AMPR, DPS, Utility.​

• AMPR Gears focus on AMPR and MP since you also get AMPR from MP which is 1 for every 100 MP, in a DW's case, its 2 for every 100MP.
  • Magic Scarf: 100 MP, +3 AMPR, for the MP and AMPR.
  • Ear Cuffs: 4 AMPR and Resistances, opt for this if you think you have high enough MP.
  • Two Headed Snake Crown: 4 AMPR and 200 MP, a better version of Magic Scarf.

• DPS Gears are pretty straight forward. Get adds that increase Offensive stats like DEX, STR, ATK, CDMG, CRIT, Short Range Damage, something like:
  • Inzanio Cape
  • Gothic Hat
  • Dragon Ears

Which are the top 3 Add Gears right now for DPS builds.
But you can also use Sandogasa which gives 10 Crit, -10% aggro, and 10% chance to do Unguardable Attacks for a few seconds.​

• Utility Gears give you HP and MP and some defensive stats like Evasion and Dodge.
  • Knife Belt
  • Mole Eyes
  • Forehead Protector

Are some of the gears you can use.​

Rings

When it comes to rings, mostly you'd choose Talismans, DEX/STR + some MP is always welcome.
Although you are not limited to these, MP also gives AMPR, so you can invest in rings like:​

• Choco Ring
• Choco Charm
• Talismans
• Moxis Strap
• Potum Talismans

But if you're already loaded on MP. You can invest in AMPR Rings like:​

• Warrior Bangle
• Spirit Tree Bangle

Or use some rings like:​

• Pendulum
• Time Warp Watch
• Misanga

Crystals Choices:

Weapon:​

• For Damage-y builds get BKOD, Ganglef, Imitator
• For more MP, get Pillar Golem
• For AMPR and HP, get Zega.

Armor:​

• Standard would be Boss Roga for more HP
• Jade Raptor of MP and AMPR.
• Cerberus if you want more damage.

Add Gears:​

• Pumpking for AMPR.
• Silver Roar, for AMPR.
• Twilight Dragon for more Damage.
• Warmonger for more Crits.
• GD Yelb for more ASPD and Damage.

Rings:

AMPR:​

• Eerie
• SG
• Viscum
• Silver Roar

Damage:​

• Don Yeti
• Bexis

Combos

FIRST AND FOREMOST, COMBO DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU NEED.

THIS IS A GUIDE, NOT A BUILD.

Combos depend on your play style, not just on your build. Combos can be slow or fast depending on how you can dictate the fight, and depending on how you play. It can be fast, slow, burst, or sustained.

Combos are what make you effective as a DW in a PT. In order to become useful in a PT. A DW should prorate for himself and for the PT. By auto attacking, or by making a combo effective enough to prorate on its own so that it does not sacrifice the damage your PT deals.

I won't give specific combos, due to the fact that the combos I use and other players use differ by a huge margin.

Simply put, all of my combos consume large amounts of MP which I can regenerate through auto attacking due to my build.

While others use combos that are longer, and are "MP Budgeted" because they use save tags and skill fillers like War Cry, Quick Aura, Impact, Reflex and Flash Blast so as that they do not consume proration mid combo but diminish the damage reduction that Save Tag applies.

One reason being that I don't post combos specifically is because they might work for some and not work for others. I've had tons of noobs message me that my combo is shit or why is my combo not effective. Simply put, COMBOS WORK DIFFERENTLY FOR EACH BUILD.

Tags are based on your preference.

Some basic combos are:
Astute > Spin/Twin/Charging/Phantom Slash > Shadow Step > Trigger Slash (If you took Trigger Slash)
Spin > Shadow > Twin > Charging Slash/Trigger Slash (If you took Trigger Slash)
Spin > Astute > Phantom/Twin/Charging > Shadow Step > Trigger Slash (If you took Trigger Slash)

Some advanced combos that use Save and Impact
Astute > Shadow Save > Twin Slash/Phantom Slash > Trigger Slash/Impact > Phantom Slash/Twin Slash/Charging Slash > Closer (Won't be used if you use Charging Slash before this)
Astute > War cry Save > Spinning Slash > Shadow > Twin Slash > Impact/Trigger Slash > Phantom Slash.

You can use those and play around with the concept on how they are built and used. Mostly some are damage oriented that incorporates Double Smited combos.
Now based on the skill descriptions above. You can now have a grasp on what skills do and how to incorporate them in combos.

Building your own combo is easy. You just need to know what skills you'll be using and for what purpose, of course the purpose is to deal damage, but there are some used to prorate, before actually using a combo that deals tons of damage.

You can use skills like
Impact to cut the next skills' mp cost by half
Trigger Slash to boost the next skill's Motion Speed.
Shadow Step to boost the next skill's Crit Rate.

Then vary between Phantom Slash, Twin Slash, Charging Slash, or even Tempest if you take the Tempest route in Blade Skills, for damage.
Then use buffs for fillers like Quick Aura, Reflex, Sneak, or Flash Blast if you want to fill in the gaps in your combos if you use the Save Tag so that the damage reduction will be lessened by the time you actually use a Damaging Skill.

Combos are effective only if they fit your build and your play style. If your combo isn't effective for you because you copied it from someone else, then maybe the skills they use and their build is different from yours.​

For any comments and questions, you can leave it here and I'll tend to them when I get the chance.
You can also message me here on forums or Line if you're my friend there if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading.

 

Wonderful Guide! Ill be sharing with everyone in my guild!

 

Dark General's Sword has 130 base attck... Dark ele tho... Better sub than tomahawk

 

Im more inclined to tomahawk. But yes i agree. That Its better atk wise.

 

Nice guide... But if u could add spoilers would be great xp

 

Well, we can wait a few more months and get a NS player-crafted one. And some cannot afford to refine to +S themselves, so it makes things easier.

 

Hi Cyph, any particular reason why u more inclined to tomahawk? Dark General's Sword has higher stability too

 

its a neutral 1h. I might change to DGSword if and when it comes out as craftable. And im still testing some damages compared when you use elem on sub and and neutral on sub on high diff boss fights. Because i notice that if i use tomahawk at bosses like Ulti Roga, Warmo, Ecb, Ganglef. I deal more damage compared to when im using an elemental 1h that they are weak to. So on lower diff bosses and minibosses like easy to normal, its ok to use elementals. But against hard to ulti. Its better to use tomahawk.

The balance of the damage between elem and sub in all scenarios is what in after.

 

best DW in my eyes, Amazing work Cypher ^-^ i can finally build my DW properly thanks to this

 

How can i make a unsheathe dw .-. Does stats up unsheathe atk or only skills

 

For Unsheathe build, you need Charging as main DPS, with Spinning as your sub DPS. Godspeed is a must, so max every passive. Flash Blast is a good Unsheathe buff (but be careful if you rely on Trigger/Shadowstep for AMPR), and Shadowstep is overall good utility and allows you a first auto, which is counted as Unsheathe.
DPS gears that further enhances the stat include Unsheathe Bangle and Goovua Xtal (but you aren't forced to used them).
The rest is up to what you want.

 

can someone tell me if i use water element swords on both hands will the damage to fire become double??

 

Nope, only one element boost will be kept, and it is the main weapon's. Moreover, elements increase the damage by 25%, not 50%.

 

@cyph isnt shadowsteps mana cost from lvl7-10 is 200 not from lvl8-10?? Cuz im using lvl7atm and has 200mp consumption

 

if u want an unsheathe dw build u need to balance the main hand and sub hand dmg since unsheathe atk relay on both of ur sword balanced dex agi will be good yet u lack some cdmg so i prefer for u to put 100str

 

i lack skill points for shadowstep and im lazy to lvl up, can assault attack be a good substitute for shadowstep?i mean shadowstep is also for chasing eh i think assault attack also is for chasing or sticking to the enemy

 

Assault Attack has a low range. compared to Shadow Step's 12m at Max Level

 

is shadowstep needed to max or lvl 4 or 7 is enough?

 

depends on how you wanna use it. I use shadow step for chasing, crit boost and ampr boost. some use it for save tags on combos.